


even the sun sets in paradise

by firetruck



Category: Free!
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Orchestra, Gen, Multi, Other, musica au, probably a music au is closest to what this actually is, quartet au maybe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-19
Updated: 2014-06-19
Packaged: 2018-02-05 08:17:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1811593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firetruck/pseuds/firetruck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>nagisa ropes everyone into starting a quartet and they find out rei is atrocious at the violin. haru insists on playing the same song over and over again on the piano, makoto almost drops his cello, and gou realizes that fairy tales are full of shit, but maybe she can make her own happy ending. rin thinks that he should start being a better brother. </p><p>gou-centric in a roundabout way.</p><p>//music AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	even the sun sets in paradise

**Author's Note:**

> chapter summary: gou rediscovers her brother's old friends and haruka's knack for the piano. makoto brings bento lunches, they're all slightly concerned about rin, and nagisa ropes everyone into starting a quartet

She holds her breath, the sound of Johann Pachelbel’s famous piece filling the tiny music room. Chords echo through the small space, and a melody spills from the open lid of the piano, wrapping itself around her, and her heart clenches before she feels like crying. The player hits the lower notes, the deep reverberating sound reaching her ears and flowing all the way to the tips of her toes, leaving a tingling sensation at her fingertips, and she decides that she’s never heard anything more beautiful. 

The piece grows louder and louder until she feels as if she’s drowning in the notes until the melody subsides a bit, ebbing away, just like the ocean, until it stops completely and she has to catch her breath because she had stopped breathing halfway through the piece, and now she can’t remember how to breathe anymore. Her fingers, still tingling, grip the door tightly, and she peers in to catch a glimpse of the performer. 

“...Haruka-senpai..?”

The words are out of her mouth before she can stop them, and she shies away, ducking behind the door and clasping a hand to her mouth. But he hears her anyways, and closes the lid of the piano, shuffling over to the door and opening it. A shock of dark red hair greets him, and he thinks he sees Rin for a moment before his mind clears. 

“.....Gou-san,” he nods respectfully, surprise evident in his tone of voice.

“It’s Kou,” she corrects automatically, but not in a harsh way. She’s tentative, skating on thin ice, because she hasn’t seen him for years and doesn’t know how he’ll react, and if he’ll ask about Rin or not. 

“Kou-san,” he repeats, albeit somewhat slowly. He’s unsure, tip-toeing on broken eggshells, because he hasn’t seen her for so long and doesn’t know what to do, and should he ask about Rin? Would that make her uncomfortable?

A stretch of silence follows after she nods in appreciation of him using her preferred name, and her hands can’t stop moving, tugging on her skirt, brushing hair out of her eyes, and clasping behind her back before switching to the front. His hands twitch slightly, but he keeps them at his side, his normally talented fingers now hanging uselessly at his sides, and he starts to sweat a little, wishing something, anything, would happen and make this less awkward. 

Just as she gets ready to make a hasty retreat and babble an excuse of some sort, his wish is granted in the form of Makoto, who’s holding two bento boxes, and Haruka cannot remember a time he was more relieved to see his friend. 

“Haru, I’ve been looking for you all lunch bre--Gou-chan?”

Makoto is startled, and he lowers the bento boxes to his side. He takes in the red-haired girl who glanced at him before averting her gaze, seemingly finding something extremely interesting on the floor. He shoots a look at Haru and raises an eyebrow, asking for an explanation, but Haru only lifts one shoulder slightly in a half-hearted shrug. Abandoning all hope of getting anything out of his quiet friend (for now), he tries again. 

“Gou-chan? Do you remember me? It’s Makoto!” He speaks with an easy-going smile on his face, and she silently wonders how he can be so happy at a time like this before she reminds herself that he doesn’t know yet. 

Instead of saying anything, she nods once. 

“She wants to be called Kou,” Haru says helpfully. Gou shoots him a grateful glance before Makoto apologizes. 

“But, why Kou? I think Gou is a very nice name,” he says lightly. 

“It’s a boy’s name,” she says, as if it’s the easiest thing in the world, and leaves it at that. 

“Are you going to Iwatobi this year?” He swiftly switches the topic, gently placing one of the bento boxes in Haru’s hands, who have regained their ability to function. Haru takes it wordlessly before heading up to the roof with Makoto and Gou trailing behind him, their quiet conversation and footsteps on the stairs filling the empty space between them. 

“Mhmm, I am,” she says, quickly adding, “Rin isn’t, though,” before he can ask. 

Haru pauses for a fraction of a second, and Makoto doesn’t miss it at all. He also doesn’t miss the concern in Gou’s voice. 

“Ah, I see. Where does he go, then? Maybe we could visit him.”

She flinches, and he backtracks hastily.

“Of course, he probably still needs time to settle in, and maybe he doesn’t want to see-”

“S-Samezuka.” She curses herself for tripping over her words. “He goes to Samezuka..”

This time, Haru is the one who notices her pause, and he glances at Makoto before pushing open the door to the roof and settling down against the wall. 

“But...?”

“Rin--He..he’s different. He changed. I don’t know what happened.” She can hear the panic leaking into her voice and she quickly shuts her mouth before she says too much (she doesn’t want to cry today). Makoto sends her a worried look, and Haru unpacks his bento. He shrugs again, mostly unaffected. 

“He’ll come around eventually,” he says casually, as if it were no big deal. As if Rin had simply made a trip to the corner store for a quart of ice cream and would be back in five minutes. As if Rin had just gone to the bathroom and wouldn’t be gone for more than two minutes. Gou chews on the inside of her lip and sits down in front of him, Makoto taking the spot next to him. 

“Gou-chan, did you bring lunch today?”

She wonders if Makoto is calling her by her actual name on purpose, or if he’s just forgetful, but she brushes it aside. Gou nods quickly, “Yes! I’ve already finished my lunch, though,” she adds. That was a lie. Clearing her throat, she turns to Haruka, remembering his stunning performance in the music room. 

“So, Haruka-senpai,” she starts, “Was that Pachelbel Canon in C?”

He lowers his chopsticks for a millisecond before answering with a nod, and Gou smiles. It’s the first real smile they’ve seen since they met her again.

“It’s my favorite piece on the piano,” she explains. “Everyone likes it better in D Major, but I think C is the best. It sounds much more fuller, especially when you play it, Haruka-senpai! I missed your playing so much. You’re really talented!” She sighs wistfully. 

“Can’t you play?” He wonders aloud. Rin could, so there shouldn’t be a reason his younger sister couldn’t. But he knows he’s touched a sensitive subject, because Gou’s face flushes with embarrassment and she covers her cheeks with her hands and looks away. 

“Ah, I’m no good at the piano,” she mutters. Not wishing to dwell on this subject anymore, Gou turns to Makoto. “Do you still play the cello, Makoto-senpai?”

He smiles again and sets down his bento. 

“Yes, of course! Although I haven’t been practicing recently,” he admits with an embarrassed laugh. “After the old group broke up and our conductor retired, we haven’t been doing much playing. Except for Haru, obviously! He still practices every day. Sometimes, he forgets to have lunch!”

“What about Nagisa-kun? Is he still around?” She pauses. “I haven’t seen him yet.”

Makoto takes a moment to gather his words. “Ah, Nagisa-kun. He still plays the viola, if that’s what you’re wondering..but lately, he’s been talking about starting the trumpet...or drums...it’s worrying,” he trails off. 

Haru pales at the thought of Nagisa blowing away on a trumpet, or Nagisa banging away on a drum set. He nods in agreement. It would indeed be worrying. And very loud.

Gou laughs. “Even if he did, you know he’d never drop the viola. He’s been playing ever since he was a baby, practically! All of you have.” 

“I guess you’re right,” Makoto nods. 

“But what I was trying to ask is, well, where is--”

A shrill scream and the sound of something dropping paired with rapid footsteps cuts into her sentence. The person continues screaming, and Gou finally registers what they’re saying. 

“Gou-chan! Gou-chan! Gou-chan!” 

A head of blond hair catapults towards Gou, and she hardly has time to yell, “Call me Kou!” before the person crashes into her and she slams onto the floor, all the air knocked out of her for the second time that day. Haru lets out a small sigh, and Makoto quickly sets his bento down before removing the body on top of Gou. 

“Nagisa! You shouldn’t jump on people like that,” he scolds. 

“But Mako-chan! I haven’t seen Gou-chan for so long,” he pouts, and Makoto exhales before sitting back down and picking up his lunch, sending an apologetic smile to Gou. 

“It’s fine, Makoto-senpai,” she says, sitting up and brushing the flecks of gravel from her skirt. Excitedly, Nagisa practically bounces over to her and begins speaking so fast her head spins, and Gou has to place a hand on his shoulder and push him to get him to quiet down. 

“Nagisa! You’re speaking too fast. I can’t understand a word you’re saying!” 

“I was saying we should start a rock band now that Gou-chan is back!”

“It’s Kou! And don’t you mean a ‘quartet’? I’m pretty sure no one plays cello in a rock band. Or viola.”

“But Gou-chan, a ‘rock band’ sounds cooler than a quartet!” 

Her eye twitches. Unlike Makoto, she knows that Nagisa is calling her Gou on purpose. He’s always been like that. 

“Call me Kou!”

“Fine, fine-”

She brightens up. Is he going to call her Kou now?

“-we’ll start a quartet, Gou-chan!”

She groans, but it isn’t a bad idea. A quartet could be fun, and maybe she could use this opportunity to get her brother and his friends on good terms again. There’s just one problem. 

“Nagisa,” she begins slowly, “I can’t play any instrument.” 

He lets out a boisterous laugh, and she shrinks slightly, hurt that he’d laugh at that. It’s not funny at all, she thinks, because she’s always wanted to be able to play something as lovely as Haruka-senpai or any of the others, but musical talent has never graced her like it did her brother and his friends. 

“That’s okay, Gou-chan! I have a friend who I can force to join our quartet!” 

Haru sets down his bento, Makoto chokes on his rice, and Gou pales. 

“...Force?”

“Nagisa, we’re not going to force anyone to be in a quartet!” 

Again, he laughs it off, and Gou has a bad feeling about Nagisa’s plan. 

“Don’t worry, he loves classical music! And he told me that he wants to get off the track team anyways, because sweating that much in a few hours isn’t ‘beautiful’.” 

“So, who is it?”

“Great question, Mako-chan!” Nagisa pushes up a pair of imaginary glasses (Haru rolls his eyes at this) and clears his throat. 

“His name is Rei Ryugazaki, and he’s in my math class! He’s a pretty funny guy!” 

Gou wrinkles her nose. 

“Don’t we need to fill in a club form and get an adult to supervise us or something..?”

Nagisa visibly deflates before declaring loudly, “Leave it to me, Gou-chan! I’ll have our club up and ready by...tomorrow!”

“Nagisa, tomorrow is Saturday,” Haru reminds him while packing up his bento. 

“Leave it to me, Gou-chan! I’ll have our club up and ready by Monday!” 

He struck a heroic pose, and Gou sighs. But she was happy. The happiest she’s been since her brother returned, in fact. And because she’s happy, she smiles. Makoto and Haru notice this and exchange a look, Makoto smiling as well. Giggling, Gou flashes two thumbs-up at the silly boy in front of her. 

“It’s Kou! And we’re all counting on you, Nagisa-kun, so don’t let us down!”


End file.
